Do I really need to say it?The sun woke me up today at quarter till six in the morning. Since I didn't figure the bike shop would be open this early, I rolled over and went back to sleep for a few hours. I finally rose about nine in the morning and on my way out, that helpful lady was there again. Of course I had to talk to her again, and I got the distinct feeling, from all the 'dude' and the rocker symbol she flashed me as I drove up, that she was one of those neo-hippies. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but my stereotype of the youth of Canada was a little bit off. Anyway, she was awesome. From her directions I drive right to the bike shop and looked around for a bit and then asked about the trails.
The guy that told me about the trails got me to buy a map from him for over $12 after tax. I was less than enthused with paying that kind of cash for a map, but since part of the trails are on private grounds, and sales of things like this map goes to that cause, I guess I can look at it like a park fee and then it wasn't as bad.
The trail recommended to me was Happy
The biggest problem with walking, however, was the fact that you could scarcely see where you were walking for all the mosquitoes. If I thought the mosquitoes were bad last night, they were almost unbearable in the shadows of this forest. So after a few recovery steps, I forced myself back onto the bike to plod along up the trail. This was a great way to get in shape though, if you take it easy and walk, you get drained of your blood, otherwise you work hard staying just ahead of the mosquito herd.
After riding up several steep climbs, and walking a few others, I quickly referred to the map to make sure I was going the correct direction, and it seemed I'd made a wrong turn. No time to look at that now, the herd caught me. After I rounded another corner I saw in front of me what looked to be a wall. Now I knew I had made a wrong turn and headed back to the trail I wanted to be on. I had stumbled upon a black trail when I wanted to stick to the blue trails. Now back on track, this trail seemed like a breeze and I soon found myself at the lake, aptly named Mosquito Lake.
There were a few other bikers here, and after talking to them for a little bit, one of them recommended a black trail down to the parking lot. I thought I knew where the trail head was to it and could get to the actual black from a couple different blue routes. I must not have found the correct entrance because it was quickly apparent that I was on another black route. Meaning I did more hiking than I did biking, this time I didn't have much of a choice, I just had to wade through the herd.
Finally, time for the downhill. The black trail started out as a blue and I was moving quite quickly down the trail with little difficulty. Oh sure, it was more technical than most of the trail at Platte River, but only because of the rocks. Then came the black trail. I'm proud to say that I only had to walk down two parts of this trail. One was a huge granite slab with a steep drop off on one side, so I decided I wanted to keep the tire side down. The second I could have ridden through, but the trees in equilateral triangle fashion were just marginally farther apart than my handle bars, and given the speed I would have had going through them, my knuckles thank me for walking through this section.
When I arrived at my vehicle, I checked my watch for the first time since leaving and found that three hours had passed. Except for maybe a half hour at the lake, the entire rest of the time was spent biking, or hiking up hills. What's even more amazing is that my GPS says I went over seven miles. That makes this the farthest, and hardest that I've ever biked before, and I feel like it currently... I'm beat. I feel like it's time for a nap, or just drive about 400 miles to Prince George.
MTB Distance: 7.62. Elevation: 669 -> 1932
Continue with Day 19.
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